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Once more unto the streets! – street cleaning gets intense
Cleaning crews are poised in the coming weeks to rigorously cleanse the most heavily parked roads in Bromley. Building on the success of the scheme’s trial earlier in the year, selected roads in the borough will be intensively jet washed, focusing on the normally more hard-to-get-to kerbs and drain lines. Roads in areas such as Chislehurst, Mottingham and Orpington will all be cleaned. Special attention will be given to Albany Road, Chislehurst, which will be closing on the 12th September, with planned diversions to bus routes in the area.
“Parked cars have always been a problem for street cleaning teams as they result in certain areas of the road being inaccessible to conventional cleaning methods. This is why it is essential for us to take these more radical, innovative measures that have been prompted by requests from residents. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the road restrictions, but with the cooperation of motorists we should be able to carry through the scheme with minimum disruption” said Peter McCready, Head of Area Management.
The long-term build up of detritus between parked cars is a problem that has been identified by both residents and authorities, moving the council to enact this pioneering new scheme. To ensure maximum awareness of the operations taking place, leaflets will be delivered to residents in affected areas and placed on parked cars.
Those cars that are not moved and are still parked when the cleaning process takes place may be physically shifted by the council. Specialists will be on-hand to physically raise the cars from the road using machinery, or alternatively move the car to a nearby street. It is recommended, however, that motorists move vehicles themselves to guarantee operations are carried through swiftly.
Bromley’s normal street cleaning service guarantees an at least fortnightly clean of every street, which can vary up to daily in busier spots. An array of different methods is used to tackle every problem, including mechanical sweeping supplemented by litter picking and manual sweeping. £4 million is spent on cleaning Bromley’s 500 miles of streets every year. 7,780 tons of street sweeping were collected in 2006, over a quarter of which was recycled.
To report a street cleaning problem, visit
www.bromley.gov.uk or call the Customer Service Centre on 020 8313 4557.
ENDS